Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Verbal War Over War On Drugs - Vermont


MONTPELIER — If you ask Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand, the war on drugs is a bit like the war in Iraq.

Both are wars based on misinformation that have led to extreme human suffering, Sand said during a forum in Montpelier Thursday on drug policies. And both wars have no end in sight and are escalated by unsustainable surges, he said.

"It is time for peace talks in the war on drugs," said Sand, who supports decriminalizing marijuana and using a public health approach to rehabilitate addicts of harder illegal substances.

The law enforcement approach to drugs such as marijuana cause more harm than the use of the drug itself, Sand said. It's also expensive, he said, pointing out that a traffic stop for speeding may take 30 minutes while a stop that involves "a small amount of dried plant material" jumps to three hours.

"If the harm of our response outweighs the harm of the use of the drug itself, then we need to change our response," said Sand, who added that violence is only associated with marijuana when "transactions go awry."

Several of the panelists in the morning could not disagree with Sand more.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow compared the war on drugs to efforts to stop domestic violence or fraud. Those two societal problems also continue to exist, but it doesn't mean that law enforcement should stop its "ongoing response," he explained.

Darrow also told of a South Hero couple whose recent experimentation with OxyContin has resulted in severe addiction, prison, several trips to rehab and the state taking away their child. He said that is the reality of addiction of Vermont."If that sounds like 'Reefer Madness' to say drugs are poisonous and toxic — but they are," he added, referring to the 1936 propaganda film that depicts casual marijuana use as leading to insanity, violence and death.

Vermont News

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I live in Barre,VT. Our Mayor, who also sat on this panel, advocates legalization of marijuana and the death penalty for heroin dealers. While it's refreshing to an honest discussion of the topic, it's disheartening to hear such lame-ass rhetoric from the US Attorney's office. To compare minor marijuana offenses (or even major ones) as comparable to domestic violence or fraud is absurd. Any average toddler could figure out the weakness in that argument. To insinuate that marijuana is as harmful to society as the brutality of domestic violence or as costly to society as fraud is an insult to the public's collective intelligence.
What's not being discussed is the real reason behind the federal government's reluctance to change its stance? The same thing as always...Money! Billions of dollars are funneled through various federal, state and local agencies in the name of fighting "The War on Drugs". Nobody from law enforcement, with the exception of a few, are going to come out in support of legalization. It could literally cost them their jobs. Therefore, how much credibility can you give them when they speak out. Not much in my book...
Meanwhile, we continue to bury our heads in the sand and perpetuate the problem. If the US Attorney wanted to make a good argument, perhaps he should have made an analogy using the societal ills of alcohol. Oh, wait a minute, that would require that you admit you lost the last "War on Drugs". In all reality, the problems caused by alcohol far outweigh the problems caused by marijuana. I would like to see them tax booze into the stone age as they have with cigarettes. A twelve dollar 6 pack might make you think twice before binge drinking. The proceeds could go to rehabbing alcoholics. Everyone said the tobacco lobby is too strong to get real change, yet the number of smokers continues to decline.

brianna said...

Hello this is Brianna visiting first time to this site and find it very interesting. I really like to join it.and really want to continue the discussion with this site..

-------

brianna

vermont drug rehab

Anonymous said...

酒店經紀
酒店打工
酒店兼差
酒店兼職
酒店工作
酒店上班
寒假打工
暑假打工
酒店
禮服酒店
合法酒店經紀
兼差
台北酒店經紀
喝酒
酒店消費
制服酒店
酒店喝酒